Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter Twenty

Sorry I didn't update yesterday! You can have two today instead :)

True to her word, Madame Pomfrey let Silvanna out the next day during breakfast, her cuts having healed into tiny thin scars. Silvanna thanked her profusely before heading to her dorm to shower and change before Herbology. Obviously, she was asked loads of questions by Mary and Marlene, who were running late.

"Where'd you go after dinner?" Mary asked her with a small smile as Marlene came out the bathroom, bringing with her a woody sort of smell.

"Oh, I felt a bit sick," Silvanna said vaguely, rushing into the bathroom just as Marlene said,

"It's all that carrot cake you had for pudding!"

  The lessons went by fairly normally, but now with the teachers pressing the fact that exams were coming up. Lily, obviously, had already started revising, and declined Mary and Marlene's offer to start a study group. "I'm working with Sev," she had said, before rushing off to Defence with him.

"Greasy git," Silvanna had heard Mary mumble, and she laughed as she passed them to take her own seat.

On Wednesday, she was just packing up her potion with Remus and Pettigrew when there came a knock at the door, and Professor McGonagall appeared, a tight smile forced upon her face. It looked wholly unnatural, and Potter mimed a shudder at the desk behind them. "Horace-" Sirius snorted at the name. "-I wonder if I could borrow Miss Snape please?"

"Why of course!" said Slughorn, beaming and waving at her to leave. Silvanna jumped into action, wondering how she could be in more trouble, as she shoved Magical Draughts and Potions and her notes into her satchel.

"Don't mind us," said Pettigrew with a smile.

"Yeah, we'll clean up your mess," Remus added. Silvanna shoved into him before scurrying after McGonagall. On her way to the door, she 'accidently' knocked over a labelled vial on Severus's desk, making howls of laughter break out at the back of the room. She pretended not to notice, already halfway through the door when Severus let out a cry of outrage.

She followed McGonagall to her office, and took a seat opposite her as she had when she'd been told off for knowing about Remus. This time, however, Professor McGonagall seemed a little bit nicer. "Tea?" she offered, flicking her wand. A teapot floated over to them.

Silvanna didn't really like tea, even with sugar in it. In fact, she thought that made it worse. But she knew it would be rude to decline. "Yes, please," she said, picking at her nails.

McGonagall nodded and placed a teacup and saucer in front of her. "And would you like a biscuit?"

"A-a biscuit?" Silvanna stammered, wondering why McGonagall was being so nice.

"Yes, I've got some wonderful shortbreads," said McGonagall. She picked a tartan tin from a nearby shelf and took the lid off, revealing it to be crammed full of shortbread biscuits. It looked like they were shaped like quidditch balls.

Careful not to drop any crumbs, she took a bludger. "Thank you," she said, before nibbling at it.

"You're welcome," said McGonagall pleasantly, taking a snitch for herself. A bell went in the castle, signalling the end of lessons. "How were your holidays?" Ah. There we go.

"Fine," she said with a shrug. "Just read my books. And climbed trees," she added hastily.

McGonagall ignored the last comment. "Yes, I heard you quite liked the library."

"It's brilliant," said Silvanna enthusiastically. "They've got all sorts of books in there. Even muggle ones! My favourite is Peter Pan, but I didn't much like Alice in Wonderland. It didn't make a lot of sense..." She trailed off, catching herself rambling.

McGonagall looked mildly entertained. "But flying children does make sense?"

"They at least bothered to explain it," said Silvanna cautiously as she finished her biscuit. "You have to believe and then you can fly. Alice in Wonderland was just a bunch of ideas mushed together."

"Some may say that's the beauty of it," said McGonagall, glancing briefly out the window at the sound of a girl squealing. "I didn't like it either when I read it."

"Remus said that," said Silvanna, frowning as she sipped at her tea. It was bitter and too hot. "He said it was 'artfully crafted'. Dunno what that means though."

McGonagall gave another of those stiff smiles. "Have you started revising?" Silvanna knew that this question had a right answer.

"Yeah, I read my textbooks over the holidays," she said. "I might summarise my notes a bit, and I'm rubbish at Charms, I need to practice some of those."

"Well, your fire-igniting charm looked fine to me." Silvanna grinned at her, recalling her birthday letter from home. "You ought to get going, I'm sure you've got plenty of homework to be getting in with."

Silvanna was surprised the conversation ended there. She was expecting some great revelation, or for McGonagall to say 'haha, you're being expelled!'. She hadn't expected a chat with tea and a biscuit. "Erm, right, yes," said Silvanna, picking her satchel off the floor. "Thanks, Professor."

"Don't worry," said McGonagall, sipping her tea. "You can come by anytime."

The following day, Sirius was pulled from his flying lesson early. Silvanna cornered him in the common room that evening. "What did McGonagall want?" she demanded of him. "Did she give you one of those biscuits?"

"Yeah, it was shaped like a little snitch," said Sirius. "I don't know, she asked about my holidays. Told me I ought to try out for the quidditch team next year - I won't though. I thought I was going to be in trouble, but she just talked at me."

"Weird," said Silvanna, frowning.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "Weird."

She shook her head, before going off to do her astronomy homework before bed. It hadn't been too cloudy today, so maybe she could use real data instead of the textbook's stuff...